Miles at the Track

Tonight I felt like switching it up and going to the track. It's been a loooong time since I've been to a track to run any kind of workout. I wasn't planning on doing anything too hard and thought I'd maybe just do a few miles there. I convinced Greg to go with me. It was very fun!

Greg running.

















After briefly talking to Greg about what my ideas of repeats on a track are (from things I've read over the years and my own experience working with Fleet Feet's training programs), he decided he was going to do some 400's. I decided I was going to do mile repeats. That is good distance to repeat for marathon training, plus I wanted to work on my pace and form. I brought the camera along and had Greg take a few pictures of me so I could see what I look like while running. I have a tendency to bring my arms up kind of high as well as my shoulders. Start looking like a t-rex.

















I warmed up 1 mile at a 10:00 pace. Then my plan was to do 3 miles at 9:30, and another cool down mile. The first mile I did was 9:00 – a bit faster than I planned. The second mile I nailed the pace at 9:30. I decided that was enough, since I'm planning to run 16 miles this weekend. So I ran one more cool down mile at 10:15 pace for a total of 4 miles.

Look pretty normal...























Look out small dinosaurs... here comes T-rex...raaaarrwww!





















The track is so nice – soft and smooth. There was always a breeze at some point, even though it was 89º when we went. Greg did awesome, running various distances repeatedly. I think he's going to be sore. His cool down is faster than my mile repeat. Yeah. I'm pokey.

After we ran, we took our shoes off and ran a couple of yards on the fake turf football field barefoot. It is squishy and felt great. I could feel the different muscles being used around my ankles.
Greg stretching.

















So we are planning to try to go to the track on Tuesdays now. This will give me more time between possibly having a hard workout and running a long run on the weekend. It's fun that we can run together, even while we're clearly such different paces. I think I'll stick with mile repeats for the duration of the marathon training. I'll keep working on my form and staying strong when tired.